Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

After returning to the world of Food Wars, Haruto soon made another trip to the world of Toriko.

The last time he had visited, his main purpose had been replenishing his stock of ingredients in the Wuu Jungle, so he had never actually left the Wuu Continent.

This time, however, Haruto had no intention of remaining there.

He released Charizard from its Poké Ball.

With a deep growl, Charizard spread its enormous wings and beat them powerfully, carrying Haruto high into the sky.

A day later, they reached another continent, where Haruto eventually spotted the outline of a human city.

After entering the city, he spent some time asking around about recent events.

It did not take long before he heard that a wealthy patron was recruiting Gourmet Hunters to travel to the Ice Hell and capture Century Soup.

Naturally, Haruto was extremely interested in an ingredient that appeared only once every century.

Once he found out where the ship bound for the Ice Hell was departing from, he immediately headed there.

Unfortunately, by the time he arrived two days later, the ship had long since sailed.

Haruto could only sigh helplessly.

He would be lying if he said he was not disappointed, but only a little.

He knew enough about the Ice Hell to understand the situation. Very little of the original Century Soup remained in existence.

Even if he had reached the Ice Hell, he would have needed to endure its brutal environment while competing directly against the powerful and ruthless Gourmet Corp.

Even with his current strength, taking the Century Soup from them would have been anything but easy.

More importantly, instead of fighting over the few remaining portions of the original Century Soup, Komatsu would soon reproduce it perfectly using ingredients available in the modern Human World.

There would certainly be differences between the recreated version and the original, but not in terms of flavor.

For Haruto, that was more than acceptable.

Once he thought of it that way, his lingering disappointment disappeared.

Still, Haruto had another major reason for coming to the Toriko world.

He wanted to find Melk the Second.

Unfortunately, Toriko and Komatsu had not yet set out in search of Melk Stardust, which meant they had not met Melk the Second yet.

Haruto’s plan to ask her to help prepare the material for a new kitchen knife would have to wait.

He was not particularly bothered.

His current Melk Knife would remain usable for quite some time.

And while he waited, he could continue gathering better materials and eventually create an even more exceptional knife.

With that decided, Haruto simply left the Toriko world.

Afterward, he visited the Hunter x Hunter world, the One Piece world, and several others in succession.

Unfortunately, the results were underwhelming.

Most ingredients that were relatively easy to obtain had already been collected.

As for the truly rare ones, acquiring them would require far too much trouble, so Haruto could only leave them for another time.

Feeling somewhat unsatisfied, he eventually returned to Totsuki Academy.

For the next month, he enjoyed a rare stretch of peaceful life.

Every morning began with an elaborate breakfast prepared from ingredients he had brought back from different worlds.

His mornings were spent either attending classes or reading through culinary texts.

In the afternoons, he entered the Gourmet Restaurant to tend to the various ingredients and ecosystems he had collected, while also fitting in some training for Charizard, Ralts, and Alolan Vulpix.

At night, he usually gathered with everyone from Polar Star Dormitory in Marui Zenji’s room to chat, play cards, and generally waste time together.

Unfortunately, peaceful days never lasted forever.

A new World Gate appeared in his house.

Haruto did not hesitate.

He immediately returned home and stepped through it.

The next instant, he found himself standing inside a stone passageway.

Before he could properly inspect his surroundings, a tearful voice suddenly echoed through the darkness.

"It’s so dark... I’m scared! It’s so dark! I’m scared..."

Haruto turned toward the sound.

One glance was enough to make his eyebrows rise.

There were two and a half young women standing not far away.

The reason he counted half was because the upper half of the third girl had been completely swallowed by an old treasure chest.

Rows of sharp, bone-white teeth lined the edges of the "chest," leaving only the girl’s lower body sticking outside while her two legs kicked helplessly in the air.

The frightened, almost crying voice was coming from inside the chest.

Beside the mimic stood two other young women wearing complicated expressions.

Haruto took in the absurd scene and almost immediately realized both what world he had entered and who the people before him were.

This was the world of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

More specifically, he had arrived inside the Ruins of the King’s Tomb, the dungeon being used for the second stage of the First-Class Mage Exam.

The girl currently half-eaten by a mimic was Frieren, the thousand-year-old elf mage who had slain more demons than almost anyone alive and had once defeated the Demon King alongside the Hero Himmel.

The purple-haired girl beside her was Frieren’s apprentice, Fern.

And the woman with extraordinarily long pale hair was Sense, a First-Class Mage and one of the exam proctors.

Haruto remained where he was rather than immediately approaching.

He simply watched the scene with considerable amusement.

A Great Mage who had lived for over a thousand years and helped Hero Himmel defeat the Demon King was currently losing a fight against one of the most basic dungeon monsters imaginable—and had become so frightened of the darkness inside it that she was nearly crying.

Even though Haruto already knew about Frieren’s infamous weakness for mimics, seeing it happen right in front of him made the contrast so ridiculous that he could not help finding it funny.

While Haruto observed the three of them, Sense and Fern noticed his sudden appearance almost immediately.

Sense’s enormous mass of hair tensed behind her.

Individual strands stiffened like blades preparing to strike as mana quietly flowed through them.

As a First-Class Mage, Sense’s ability to perceive mana far surpassed that of ordinary mages.

Yet when Haruto appeared, there had been no fluctuation of magic.

No mana had leaked out.

There had been no warning whatsoever.

It was almost as though he had always been standing there.

And Sense was certain of one other thing.

Haruto was not a candidate participating in the First-Class Mage Exam.

The Ruins of the King’s Tomb had been sealed off specifically for this examination. Aside from candidates and examiners, nobody was supposed to be inside.

Yet Haruto had somehow appeared here anyway.

Sense did not attack immediately.

There was no hostility coming from him.

Not even the slightest trace of aggression.

He was merely standing at a distance, watching Frieren get chewed on by a mimic as though enjoying an entertaining spectacle.

The Ruins of the King’s Tomb were a notoriously dangerous dungeon, and occasionally reckless high-level adventurers did sneak inside in search of treasure.

So it was not impossible that Haruto was simply one of them.

Still, the manner in which he had seemingly appeared out of nowhere was far too strange for Sense to lower her guard.

Fern had noticed him as well.

Wariness filled her violet eyes as her fingers tightened around her staff, mana quietly gathering around her.

But once she realized that Haruto had made no attempt to approach and showed no intention of attacking, she immediately turned her attention back to Frieren.

Fern hurried forward, grabbed hold of Frieren with both hands, gritted her teeth, and pulled with all her strength.

Even then, she could not pry Frieren free from the mimic.

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